This exploratory research study will bring together two promising innovations that have the potential to help more students meet high standards and prepare for college and 21st century careers. One innovation is a new high school course entitled Energizing Physics, designed to help students with a wide range of capabilities by applying best practices and presenting a relatively small number of key concepts in depth. Another is the BEAR assessment system, designed to provide frequent formative assessment data to students and teachers. The goal is to develop and test a formative assessment system for Energizing Physics that has the potential to enable all students to learn how to learn physics, so they can succeed in their first physics course in college. Partners include course authors Aaron Osowiecki and Jesse Southwick from Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts, Cary Sneider and graduate students at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, and assessment specialists Mark Wilson and Karen Draney at the Graduate School of Education, University of California at Berkeley.
The project will proceed in five phases. Phase I: During the summer of 2010 project teams from Massachusetts and Oregon will meet with assessment experts in California for training in the BEAR assessment system. Phase II: During the subsequent year the team will collaborate remotely to embed the BEAR system into the course materials, and recruit eight teachers (four in Massachusetts and four in Oregon) who will test the new materials in a variety of high school settings. Phase III: Weeklong workshops will be held in Oregon and Massachusetts during the summer of 2011 to familiarize teachers with the course and assessment system. Phase IV: Teachers will present the course to their students, collect pre-post test data on students' conceptual understanding and problem solving abilities, as well as work samples, and report on successes and challenges. Teams will conduct classroom visits and interview teachers at school sites. Phase V: During the summer of 2012 the teams will analyze the results, modify the course materials as appropriate, and report on findings.
Given the substantial body of research on the value of formative evaluation for supporting learning, this exploratory study has the potential to develop a physics course that could help teachers support learning among students with a wide diversity of capabilities. Further, since this research builds on a similar study of the high school course Living by Chemistry, which also uses the BEAR formative evaluation system, it may be possible to generalize ways that high school science courses can be designed to help more students succeed in college science.
Formative Assessment for a New High School Physics Course Outcomes: Energizing Physics is a first year high school course developed by teachers at the Boston Latin School. The purpose of the project was to develop and test a formative assessment system for Energizing Physics. During a pilot study involving 12 teachers and approximately 1,000 students during the 2011-2012 school year we developed, tested, and improved the following assessment instruments: Energizing Questions are designed to engage students’ interests and probe their prior knowledge. Energizing questions set the stage for introducing a new idea. Activity Questions guide student investigations of phenomena relevant to the concept that is being introduced. These questions, in the context of students’ activities, help to reveal their current understanding of physics, including any misconceptions they may have. It is an especially good opportunity for students to compare their own understanding with the ideas of fellow students. GUIDE provides a structure to help students approach the problem systematically, by writing what is Given, identifying the Unknown, Identifying the concepts and equations they need to solve the problem, Doing them math, and finally Evaluating the result. It also helps the teacher determine where the students may be having difficulty, for example by applying the wrong concept, setting up the problem, or making computational errors. DYGIT (Did You Get IT?) is a short quiz that provides an opportunity for students to assess their own understanding, and for the teacher to determine which students are struggling and how to help them. Though formative assessment happens informally throughout the lesson DYGIT places it explicitly in the lesson model. What’s the Big Idea? challenges students to summarize the main point of the lesson. Practice Problems involve students in applying their newly acquired concepts to more sophisticated problems and situations. In addition to developing these formative assessment tools we conducted a summative evaluation of the course that involved 597 students who completed pre- and post-tests. Results were that students made significant gains from pre-test to post-test in solving problems related to all five major concepts of the course: Average Speed, Conservation of Energy, Work and Energy, Force and Motion, and Electrical Energy. Effect sizes ranged from moderate to high. A further analysis showed that 9th graders made significant gains, although not as much as students in grades 10, 11, and 12, so that Energizing Physics could be used as a Physics First algebra-based course. These findings and descriptions of the formative evaluation system are described in seven peer reviewed articles that are available free online in the form of a monograph, Opening the Door to High School Physics Through Formative Assessment, by Cary Sneider and Brenda Wojnowski, Editors. The monograph is available as a free download from: www.nsela.org/publications; and also from: www.aapt.org/PTRA/institutes.cfm Impact/Benefit: High school physics has been a critical gateway, preventing many teens from pursuing successful careers in STEM fields. With the addition of the embedded assessment tools, teachers are able to diagnose their students’ needs throughout the course and adjust instruction accordingly. As a result of this study a major publisher has agreed to publish and distribute Energizing Physics nationally. Explanation: While some physics courses have been too challenging for most students, others have been too easy, focusing only on concepts and avoiding any mathematics. Energizing Physics takes a middle path by engaging students in hands-on laboratory activities with an appropriate level of mathematical rigor. This NSF grant has enabled the course authors to work with university professors to develop a suite of assessment tools using the BEAR (Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research) Center's assessment system, designed to provide frequent formative assessment data to students and teachers. The goal of the NSF-funded project was to develop and test a formative assessment system for Energizing Physics that has the potential to enable all students to learn how to learn physics, so they can succeed in their first physics course in college.
